They didn't speak for a long while, Valena and the assassin did, until they'd left the canyon and made camp under the shadow of a butte. By then the trembling had finally begun to ebb away in her hands. She didn't know why she'd saved the assassin, only that she'd needed saving. Her body had simply reacted faster then her mind could. And now here she was, sitting on a petrified log beside a fire, the Razor on her lap, sheathed in its dark, judgmental leather. "You let her live," it seemed to say. "After all she'd done to you, your friend, your Saint,  and you let her live."

Footsteps crunched in the sands close by. The assassin stepped from behind a cleft in the rock, her arms wrapped around a small bundle of semi desiccated sticks. Valena watched as she wordlessly dumped the pile into the flames, the wood crackling as the fire consumed them.

The assassin turned and sat down on the log opposite of Valena. She stared into the flames, her bald head gleaming in the firelight, the tiniest shade of stubble apparent on her scalp. To shave such a beautiful head of hair felt almost a tragedy to Valena, but she'd learned quickly the resourcefulness the assassin possessed. A cold anger rumbled in her belly then. Either that, or hunger. It was hard to tell sometimes.

The assassin's eyes flicked over to the Razor sitting on Valena's lap. "Fancy blade you've got there," she commented. "Did what I couldn't do at least."

Valena blinked before realizing that the assassin was trying to make conversation. "Thank you," she said awkwardly. "It was a gift to my people from Sanguiness, our goddess back in Villdesong," She sucked in a breath then, realizing just how much she missed home, how much she missed Rouse.

The assassin winced, as if she could read Valena's mind. "I know saying sorry won't bring him back, but I am. I truly am. I was only there for St. Friar. No one else."

"Why did you kill him?" Valena asked.

The assassin closed her eyes, her lips pressing into a tight, hard line. "I was scared. And angry." She added. "We all make mistakes when we're like that. Mistakes that we can never hope to fix."

"Not Rouse," Valena hissed. " I know why you fucking killed him you bloody bitch. I'm asking why you killed the Saint? What were you hoping to achieve in his death?"

The assassin pursed her lips. "It's difficult to say," she murmured. "I don't think you'd understand the scope of what I'm trying to accomplish, even if I tried explaining it to you."

"Fuck that!" Valena shot up from her seat, the Razor gripped so tightly in one hand she felt the knuckles pop. "I'm not going to stay in the dark over this shit, whatever it is," She slapped a hand to her chest, trying hard to keep the tears at bay. "After everything that's happened, I deserve answers. After what you did to Friar. After what you did to Rouse. You don't get to keep this from me!"

Valena clenched her teeth, realizing she'd been yelling. She stifled back a sob, feeling like she was back at the farm all those years ago with her dying father. He'd had the Rot, she could see the stains on the edges of his lips, no matter how many times he'd tried wiping them away. Contracted from the city most likely. Unfortunately, that was where the money was, and they needed money, but she needed him more.

For a long while the assassin stared up at Valena, her face twisted between regret and anger, before finally settling into a begrudging acceptance. "Fine, I suppose I owe you that much, but I warn you. You'll probably think I'm crazy once I'm done."

"Oh, we're well past that," Valena said, waving a hand at her surroundings. "So start talking."

"Where should I even begin?" The assassin asked.

"How about you start by telling me where we are?"

"We are on the continent of Ankranth," the assassin said matter-of-factly.

"Bullshit," Valena pointed up into the air. "Ankranth doesn't have a huge gaping hole in the sky. Ankranth doesn't have four armed monsters lurking in the dark corners of  canyons." She kicked at a loose rock. "Ankranth doesn't have all this fucking sand just laying around."

"It does now."

That gave Valena pause. "What do you mean, now?"

"Exactly that," said the assassin sullenly. "Back in your Link, Ankranth was a lush countryside of bountiful forests and rolling hills," And the assassin paused to look out over the withering dunes surrounding her. "but now It's a wasteland, although I can bet it didn't happen naturally."

Valena's mind raced to understand what the assassin was talking about, and was failing miserably at that. "You're not making any sense." She sucked at her gums, hating how her voice sounded at the moment. Like an ignorant country bumpkin, the likes of which she'd tried all her life to avoid being.

The assassin gave an aggravated sigh and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Stars above girl, you're not making this easy on me. Had I known I was going to tell the whole damn story I'd have written it down."

"Then start from the top and work your way down," Valena said through clenched teeth.

"All right," The assassin held up her hands defensively. "All right. No need to get testy." She looked skyward, one finger tapping pensively to her cheek. "And just what is the top in all this voided mess?" The assassins' thin eyebrows drew together and she turned her head to one side. "Oh, finally talking now are we?" There was an awkward pause, then, "No, I don't think that one counts."

"You talking to yourself again?" Valena asked.

The assassin's eyes boggled for a moment, realizing what she'd done. "No, not really," she said sheepishly. "I'm talking too...well... perhaps that would count as the top. It was when everything started to go down hill for me. When you came along."

"Me?"

The assassin waved a hand at Valena. "No, no. Not you. It," And she jabbed a finger at her bald temple. "The voice in my head you see?"

Valena glared at her. "The voice in your head?" By the bloody Goddess herself, was she really demanding answers from a crazy woman?

Gah," The assassin threw her hands up. "This is impossible. Maybe if I...," she trailed off as she reached for her pack, plying the ratty leather flap open. Before Valena could register what had happened next, two small metal creatures lept from the pack and began frantically running around the fire.

"Momma! Momma!" The red eyed creature squealed. "He's gone! He's gone!"

"He fell out Momma!" the yellow eyed one said next. "He fell out!"

"Void! No!" The assassin dug deeper into her satchel, practically tipping the whole thing over, spilling the contents onto the sands. Out came the strange jeweled weapon the assassin used, an empty bottle, a couple of tinderboxes, and other strange bobbles that Valena could not make heads or tails of.

"Shit!" The assassin lurched from her seat, eyes wide, mouth gawking. "He must have fallen out after that thing attacked me."

"Who?" Valena asked, her mind working frantically to put the pieces together as the strange metal creatures skittered about the camp like frantic cats.

"Alphy!" The assassin croaked. "He's my...well he's important to me. He and the little ones here," she pulled on her ratty coat and lifted her weapon off the ground. "I'm sorry, but I have to go back. I have to find him before it's too late."

In Valena's mind, a piece of the puzzle clicked into place.. She reached into one of her belt pouches. "Do you mean, this thing?" In her hand she held the strange metal creature she'd found back in the canyon. It trembled in her grasp, its blue eyes searching frantically until they'd settled on the assassin.

"Momma!"

"Alphy!" The assassin scooped it up from Valena's hands and held it tightly to her chest. "Oh Alphy I was so worried that I'd lost you. I'm sorry. I promise it will never happen again." she said frantically, planting a kiss on Alphy's metal brow.

"It's okay momma. That nice Limerick over there found me," Alphy said, pointing at Valena with one of its strange pincers.

Valena stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. Here was the assassin, who not too long ago, had not only murdered her Saint, but her friend as well, clutching at the strange metal creature as a mother would her child. The whole thing left her feeling quite conflicted.She should have been angry, and she was, but there was something else too, something that kept the hot angry flames in her chest from overflowing.

"Thank you," said the assassin gratefully. "I don't know what I would have done, what the children would have done, without Alphy."

"It's quite all right," Valena found herself saying, cringing as the heat began creeping up her neck. "It was honestly by chance that I found it...him. He told me that you were in trouble. I guess with everything that'd happened after, I'd forgotten he was still in my pouch till now."

The assassin wiped a tear from her cheek. She looked down at Alphy and her shoulders began to sag, as if a great weight had suddenly been put upon her. "Still, I don't know how I'll ever repay you. I don't know if I even can. After everything that's happened. After everything that I've done."

Valena licked at her sore lips, wondering just the same. What could the assassin give her? "You're name." She asked.

"My name?"

"Yes," Valena stared at the assassin's "children", watching as they danced around the fire in a blissful reunion, giggling all the while. "How about we start with your name."

The assassin's frown curved up into a soft, thankful smile. "My name is Sulana."

*

"I suppose," Sulana began to say. "I should start off by saying that I was a person of importance once,". Valena, as the apprentice was known, sat opposite the fire, listening intently. Bee and Gamm, however, skittered and jumped all around the log she sat on, their curious nature focused intently on her. Alphy, in the meantime, appeared content to sit in the apprentice's lap, and Valena had been kind enough to oblige him.

It was a strange sight for Sulana to behold, given that the apprentice had once been her enemy, but that had seemed so long ago, now that the circumstances were different. Perhaps, if she told the apprentice everything, they could be allies in some capacity. An ally that Sulana now owed a great debt too.

"Back in my Link, before Ankranth was Ankranth, I was the Comleor of my people, an... Advisor of sorts. I would meet with the greater powers of the land, Reathes as they were known, those considered the wisest and strongest of the clans, and sit with them in the Hall of the First Men, giving my consideration over important matters of discussion."

"That must have been a daunting task," Valena chimed in.

Sulana nodded. "Indeed it was. Always were the Reathes at each other's throats, fighting over petty squabbles, threatening to take matters into their own hands. Sometimes, it felt like I was babysitting children," she paused and looked down at the fire, watched as Bee and Gamm ran this way and that, playing tag with one another. "Well, the petulant ones at least."

"But they listened to you?" Valena picked Alphy up as she adjusted herself on the log, placing him back down with a gentle pat on the head.

Sulana found herself laughing. "Of course they had to. I was ordained by the Cronno itself."

Valena cocked a curious brow. "I apologize if I don't understand the importance."

"Oh, stars above," Sulana slapped a hand over her forehead. "It's been so long since I've talked to anyone, I've completely forgotten that you're not from my Link. The Cronno was a being that existed before the First Men. Like a tree, if you could call it that, that spanned entire mountain ranges. Those that could speak to it were granted the title of Comleor, acting as the shepherds for humanity, guiding them away from disaster."

"Almost like the Saints back in Villdesong." Valena pondered.

Sulana licked her lips. "More than you'd realize."

"So, how did you go from being this shepherd of humanity to," And the apprentice nodded over at the plaslock lying on top of the satchel. "All this?"

Sulana paused as she gathered her thoughts for the answer. "It happened one day Just like any other. The Reathes were being nasty again, bickering over land, or trade, or other foolish matter. I was at my wits end trying to cajole them not to go to war, but even my advice was falling on deaf ears at that point. The Reathes wanted blood and I could not stop them. I feared all would be lost. That was when—,"

"When I appeared," The voice whispered in her head.

"Yes," Sulana nodded. "When you came along."

Valena was looking at her curiously. "The voice?"

Sulana nodded meekly. She sucked in a hard breath, trying best to ignore the hollow feeling gnawing at her chest. "He...it...they told me how I could stop the Reathes going to war. All it required was a sacrifice. All it needed was the heart of the Cronno."

Bee and Gamm had stopped playing now. They sat beside the apprentice, eyes fixated on Sulana with only the sound of the wind and the crackling fire to fill the growing silence. She bit her lip, stared into the flames, and wondered what to say next. That was the problem with her memories. She'd pushed them so far down that it all felt a dream now, so distant and nebulant, like grasping at smoke.

"Sulana," Valena's voice was like the gentle tolling of a bell. A singular note, as placid and crystalline as still water. "If this is too much...," and she trailed off.

"No," Sulana shook her head. "It needs to be said. No matter how hard or how horrible, it doesn't change the fact of what I did." She grit her teeth and forced herself to continue. "I didn't do it at first. I tried other means to make the Reathes listen. I bargained, I pleaded, I even threatened, but everyday it got a little worse. Villages were sacked. People were killed. The world was plunging into a chaos that I could no longer control. Only when my options ran out...,"

"That you listened." The voice in her head spoke.

Sulana nodded. "That I listened. And so I climbed the temple steps where the Cronno stood, I begged for its forgiveness, and carved out its heart." Hot aching tears cascaded down Sulana's cheeks as the bitter memory swallowed her whole. "Only then did I realize that it was all a lie."

"What?" Valena cupped a hand to her mouth, her voice practically a whisper.

"The voice lied to me." Sulana said.

"I'm sorry."

"It told me what I wanted to hear. It used me in order to try and break the Link."

"I wasn't myself"

"What happened then?" Valena asked.

"I did the only thing I could," Sulana swallowed hard. "I used the heart of the Cronno to try and stop the Reathes. Harnessing the power within it, I scattered them across the Chain, where they could no longer cause harm."

"But it didn't work." The voice said.

"But it didn't work," Sulana crushed her eyes shut. "The voice in my head had infected them too. Like a parasite it latched on to their minds, convinced them that destroying the Link they'd been thrown too was the only way to go home. And so they became as I did, worming themselves into matters of importance. Becoming that which the people of the Link would listen to too. Just like me," Sulana opened her eyes and looked into Valena's, and in them she saw only terror. "Just like your Saint."